Vice President JD Vance arrived in Hungary this week to rally support for Prime Minister Viktor Orban, irritating the opposition leader who is favored to win the upcoming election.
Vance touched down on Tuesday and immediately began his two-day speaking tour with remarks at a “Day of Hungarian-American Friendship” event in Budapest, where he celebrated not only the two countries’ “economic cooperation” but also their “moral cooperation” in “defense of Western civilization.”
“There is so much that united the United States and Hungary. And unfortunately, there have been too few people who have been willing to stand up for the values of Western civilization,” the vice president said. “Viktor Orban is the rare exception that has unfortunately proved the rule.”
Orban has been among President Donald Trump’s closest allies for years, earning particular appreciation when he visited the then-former president at Mar-a-Lago between Trump’s terms in office.
At the same time, Budapest’s increasing animosity towards the European Union has been welcomed by a White House similarly dissatisfied by the Old World’s lack of urgency in areas like defense and mass migration.
Vance touched on this divide when he heaped praise upon the prime minister, who he called a true “statesman” and a “constructive partner for peace.” He blasted the “bureaucrats in Brussels” for trying to destroy Hungary through “foreign election interference.”
The irony of the vice president lamenting election interference from the podium of a rally intended to bolster support for the prime minister was not lost on Peter Magyar, leader of the opposition TISZA party that is currently leading Orban in the polls.
Orban’s rival was intensely frustrated by the U.S. deploying its second-highest leader to stump for the prime minister, writing on social media that “no foreign country may interfere in Hungarian elections.”
“This is our country,” Magyar said. “Hungarian history is not written in Washington, Moscow, or Brussels — it is written in Hungary’s streets and squares.”
TISZA currently holds a double-digit lead over Orban’s FIDESZ party, with polls from the end of last month putting its public support at 49% compared to 39% for FIDESZ.
Vance seemed to extend an olive branch towards TISZA when asked if the golden era of Hungarian-American cooperation could end if Orban was not re-elected on Sunday.
The vice president said that “of course [the United States is] going to work with whoever wins the Hungarian election, because we love the people of Hungary.” He then added that “Viktor Orban is going to win the next election.”
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Magyar seemed to respond positively to Vance’s assurance of continued partnership regardless of results, saying that a TISZA-led government “will regard the United States as a key partner, both as a NATO ally and as an economic partner.”
He went on to float the idea of inviting Vance and Trump back to Budapest to celebrate the “70th anniversary of the Hungarian Revolution of 1956,” a celebration that would take place in October.
